Leafmarks is shutting down

For those who haven't heard yet, Leafmarks will also be shutting down on July 1. Shelfari ends tomorrow (May 31).

I don't know how many from LM will come here vs. Goodreads, but I have pointed people in the direction of this group if they are also former Shelfarians.

Shocking news from LM after the Shelfari shutdown!

Well, I'm here to see how this works. Is that free membership offer still open for us? I always meant to get all of my books imported here but never quite got a round to it.

I'm checking to see if this nests under LibraryCin's comment.

and it didn't.

>5 TheDenizen:

LT does not do nested threads. If you want to point to the post to which you are replying, use the forward arrow + the post number (no space between them)

>6 lilithcat:

It sounds easy enough.....

and it was easy. What was your Shelfari name?

>7 TheDenizen: Denizen, check out some of the other threads in this group. Hopefully there are other tidbits of info that can help you maneuver around LT! Good luck!

Hopefully one of the LT staff will weigh in on the free or not for former shelfarians question. It's easy for people who aren't members of the group to follow along with threads.

>7 TheDenizen:

It's been so long since I've been on Shelfari that I don't remember!

I stopped by to say "hi" and help you refugees out if I could.

I was sorry to hear this. While LT is my 'forever home', I've become very fond of Leafmarks for challenge tracking, which I think it did very well.

Welcome to any Leafmarkers - do ask if you have any questions about LT life!

I'd try asking in one of the "standing" groups re:membership, it'd probably get more notice there. Or else you can email them directly.

>2 jerry-book:
I had a feeling it was coming. When I moved to LM the updates were very slow in coming and then they just stopped. While the Admin would answer some direct emails her involvement as site admin on the boards was really sporadic. It just didn't seem she had the time for the site. I am going to give this another go on here, I didn't care for it when I tried it after the shelfari announcement but maybe it will grow on me and I am keeping the GR account going as that probably is the safest bet for these type of sites.

We're bummed to hear about Leafmarks, too.

>3 TheDenizen: We'll be happy to gift you an account. I believe it should still take affect once you import your books from a Shelfari export. If the upgrade doesn't happen automatically, drop me a line (loranne@librarything.com) and I'll get you squared away.

You can check your account membership status over on Settings. Next to "Account type" it will read either "free" (if no upgrade yet), or "lifetime" (lifetime membership status acquired).

Its going to be a nightmare adapting my private group to LT. It took a lot of trial and error getting it sorted for LM,and here we go again. One thing I did like about LM was the folder system,where all the monthly Reads and Reviews or whatever topic were neatly together.,and could be archived. LT doesnt have that. We have lots of challenges,tracking threads, a book chain quiz,and lots of things where we all need to post a lot of stuff every month. I am going to have to do a LOT of experimenting to see if we can possibly do it without nesting.If it is too difficult I would have to close the group if the number of threads needed would be unmanagable,or curtail a lot of our fun threads
I was already so depressed this morning about it being the last day for shelfari and now this! Bummer!

I had moved all my books both here and to LM when Shelfari announced it's closing. I found the input mechanism here far easier to use, so I was finally bringing a lot of my older book information on-line, intending to copy it back over to LM when I finished adding it here. Looks like I can just drop LM and continue here, though I will miss the challenges and the book status updates that I used to accumulate notes for reviews as I read. I'm still learning my way around LT and haven't settled into many discussion groups yet.

In an effort to be positive, I do LOVE the "Jump to first unread" at the top of the page. That was something I was missing on LM.

>16 Jen_Bartels:

There are some cool features here. I am really just scratching the surface but will be delving in more now that Leafmarks and Shelfari are both going belly up.

Another nice thing here is the way the chocolate bar stays in place as one scrolls down the page... I did get tired of having to press 'Home' on my keyboard to get back to the top of Leafmarks pages.

>17 ScoLgo: Chocolate bar, you mean there's free chocolate here? Where?

>18 .cris: LOL!

>18 .cris: Tim keeps a hidden stash behind the cheese bar in the Green Dragon. :)

>13 lorannen: Thank you! I checked and I am classified as lifetime.

>14 dustydigger: It's helpful to either link things in the group description, or make an "index" thread, which you can link on the group page, and update as needed. Then people can easily find all the current threads. It's also useful to title them in easily distinguishable ways, like "Monthly Reads: June 2016" etc, it makes things easy to pick out in the list. Also, people can star threads to get to them easily, so people could star current threads and then unstar when the new one comes along.

I did the free download when Shelfari was going. I had been using Leafmarks, but now I`'ll come here. There are a lot of great features here, it is just a matter of learning how to do and find things. I`m not a big fan of Goodreads.

>23 nx74defiant: Just remember that for the most part most members are really good at giving advice, helping y'all figure out how to do stuff when it's not super obvious how to do it.

Also, love your username! :)

>18 .cris: Stop licking your screen, cris!

<25 You caught me!

Hi, everyone! I'm Anita, and I'm just over all of this shutting down stuff. What in the world is going on?! Wait... Someone is licking the screen? For chocolate? O.o Unless it's white chocolate, I'm not interested. (ducks for cover) LOL! Sorry. I digress.
Luckily, after some use, I began to like LT much more than LM which is not how it started out. Initially, I preferred LM. I actually had a LT account years ago, but closed it because I didn't like it. Maybe it seemed too complicated, so I stuck with Shelfari which I loved. I still have a lot to learn here, but I think LT is feature-rich, so I'm anxious to learn more. Maybe a few updates will add a few features we're missing - like nesting.

>14 dustydigger: I know how you feel. I feel so bad for everyone who put in so much work after the Shelfari thing. Other than importing, I didn't do much anywhere. Just too gun-shy I guess.

Well, LT has been here a long time, and I don't think they'd let the big A-zon take over, so we should be safe for a while. Hopefully, a long, long while. Actually, I'm kinda relieved that I don't have to keep up with LM and LT. I don't do much on GR anyway. :)

I know none of you know me, so just in case you're curious:
Doomed Leafmarks: https://www.leafmarks.com/AnitasDesk
Doomed Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/anitasdesk
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/AnitasDesk

>16 Jen_Bartels:

Have you noticed that you can jump directly to the new posts in a discussion directly from your home page? Just click the xx unread /xx link under unread/messages instead of the Topics listing.

>18 .cris:

LOL! "Chocolate Bar" is the tongue-in-cheek name someone (not me!) gave to the header bar across the top of the screen. It's chocolate brown but tastes like dusty glass if you lick it.

>24 DanieXJ: The friendliness of people here are a good portion of the reason I like it here so much! And, it seems to be a smaller community than GR. Of course, I like many of the features, as well. Those just take some time to learn!

>27 AnitaUnmuted: Unless it's white chocolate, I'm not interested.

LOL! And I go more for the dark stuff... :-)

>28 ScoLgo: There are so many different ways to get to posts/threads. I usually go to "Talk". I have the left menu usually selected to "My posts" or something, so it shows me the threads I have posted to and the ones with unread posts are at the top.

I can expand to various different levels of which posts I want to see from the left menu.

>10 klarusu: Refugee from Shelfari and now from LM. I am starting to get tired of being a refugee.

>31 LibraryCin:

Oh, I see. That's a neat way to do it.

I keep a 'Talk' section on my home page and filter it to 'Your Groups'. Since that auto-sorts to the most recent posts, it keeps me abreast of what is happening in the groups where I am a member. A quick click on the link I mentioned above and I am reading those recent posts straight away.

I also found that configuring my home page to display as double-column is a nice way to fit more stuff without having to scroll the page very much.

This is the strength of LT - that we can each customize the experience to suit our own specific needs. As much as I miss Shelfari, there were a lot of warts there that I had just gotten used to over time. Here, more often than not, I am finding ways to sandpaper away those warts! ;)

>33 ScoLgo: I have done some configuring of my home page, but I bet there's lots more I could do with it! I'm not sure I have my groups there in any way...

>29 LibraryCin: LT is much smaller than GR. Which is quite nice.

>22 .Monkey.: Monkey,thanks! I will check out this ''index thread'' business,though I am technologically clueless. I'll get back to you after I explore a bit if I need your help :))

....hmmm. This is the problem with no nesting,when there is a big gap between the two linked posts it means a third person wanting to join in has to scroll back to check the original post. It is definitely an incentive NOT to bother answering earlier posts,which should keep the chatter down in my group.We regularly have threads 200 or more posts long,and the nesting makes it easier for more irregular visitors to comment on threads they had missed,but no nesting will certainly discourage that. Oh well,we will get used to it. Poor refugees need to be adaptable.

That's why we have the links though, like at the start of your post. It bounces right back up to what you're answering, so people can easily refer back to it if they're unsure. :)

Nesting vs non each have their pros & cons, but overall, imho, nesting tends to get really messy when there's more than a couple replies, so I prefer it this way.

>28 ScoLgo: You're too late with the "dusty screen" warning. She already has a fuzzy tongue:)

>36 dustydigger: The no nesting is Tim's idea (the LT Founder). He wanted the forums to feel more like a cocktail party conversation, so a constant flow. Some have tried to encourage nesting... and we at least got the post reference. Early on, we didn't even have that...

And earlier still there was no Talk.

Could someone explain the diference between friends and contacts. I'm a bit fuzzy on that(and a million other things! )

Friends really has no purpose, aside of breaking down your connections list a little, and displaying on your profile. It's not like some sites where it grants a special level of privacy, or whatnot. Contacts is just a way to add them to your profile without "friending," so they still show in your connections, and you have a quick link to them, but nothing mutual. So say, you could add Tim or other staff, if you wanted. But then there's also "private watch list" so, eh.

I am a listoholic,so I am VERY interested in all the lists! lol. Are these only public lists,or is there an option to make them private.I have many personal lists,such as award winning SF I am working through,and deleting books when read. I am really a bit anxious about where to store them. Being able to have them in one place,but personal and private to me would be a real blessing. But I doubt actually if it is an option

>43 dustydigger: No, the lists are all public. You can select an option that only you can add books to the list. I use some lists to track my personal reading. I have found that if I title the list with my name or username and then put a nice note at the top asking people not to vote or add books, it's generally left alone. However, it can still be seen by others if they care to look at it.

And as for working through lists, lots of us have favored groups where we hang out and have threads with various kinds of lists, which then get struck through or ticked or whatever people want to mark them like, when things are read. Like for me, my most fav group is TBR Challenge and so every year we all make our lists of 24, and most folks do a strike on the titles as they're completed (and of course, make a post with their thoughts about it). For me, I like that more visual way of doing it, seeing progress get made. :)

I deleted my LM account a week or two before the announcement about its closure, but I can't say that I'm surprised by the news. While I'm settling in at Goodreads, all of my books are housed here and I like the site's features (most of which I'm still learning).

I thought there wouldnt be a way,but thank you for your replies.
My best option will be to just make a private group for myself,and put all my lists there. I not only have lists for challenges here,but also on Worlds Without End(a SF site) Plus things like a list of childrens classics,BBC Big Read winners,plus a list of all my library books,and my tracker of books read each month.Dont want to clutter up my groups so the private group seems best.
But it would have been so nice to see my lists with covers on display! :0)

>47 dustydigger: It's not quite the same but you can create Collections in your catalogue for personal lists. I do that for my Challenge lists as well as the threads that I maintain in groups. It means when I do want to look at covers, here or on the app, I can browse that way.

Here's my 75 Book Challenge one:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/klarusu/75bookchallenge

It looks like Leafmarks refugees have already started an active group. Here's a very helpful feature you may not have noticed: touchstones.

If you put single brackets around a book title, a link to that book's page is created automatically when you post: War and Peace.

If you put double brackets around an author's name, a link to that author's page is created: Jane Austen.

Instructions are always to the right of the posting window.

>49 sturlington: Touchstones are great, but you do need to check that search brought up the right book. Sometimes it guesses wrong. Usually the right book will be easy to find if you click on 'Others'.

>50 MarthaJeanne: Good point!

>50 MarthaJeanne: I just tested the Touchstones on my most recent read "Shades of Grey" by Jasper Fforde. I'm sure you can guess which book page was indicated!

>30 LibraryCin: Hahahaha! Funny, Cin!

>35 .Monkey.: I figured. I see many of the same people on different groups, so I thought it must be smaller!

>52 .cris: LOL!

It's a pain to face the changes, to be sure, and I'll be taking my time with it here. A lot going on in the real world, and lot of writing to do. But I'll be in and out of this group and the sci-fi group on LT from time to time.

Okay ... I know I knew how to do this before, but I can't figure it out now .....
How do I reference a previous post that I want to reply to (so I get that little blue link to the original post)...

>57 BookConcierge: Type a right-facing arrow (SHIFT+.) and the number of the post, with no space between. That turns into a link back to the original post.

Well, here I am, another Shelfari/Leafmarks refugee. Brought my books with me. My compliments to the LT staff - it was a painless process.

Regarding the fact that the discussions here aren't "nested," this one is easy for me. I'm well-accustomed to this sort of layout. I've been a member of an amateur astronomy forum with this layout for fifteen years!

Different people prefer one or the other. I much prefer this way and would hate it to be nested. That would be even worse than the chocolate.

>54 LibraryCin: There's a much larger portion of people here who don't do the social thing, too. Like GR is all about the social, that's its whole market. Here, the social is essentially an afterthought. So we are a far smaller site than GR, but even amongst that, those who you'll actually see around are a far smaller group still. :)

Question: I've recreated a monthly challenge group. On the group page where we put our statement it says at the bottom Administrators, plural. Can we have co-admins? I'm concerned that if the admin/creator (me) becomes unavailable (ill health etc), the page can't be updated.
I've made some mistakes in the set up. Is there any way to delete unwanted topics. I don't really want to delete the group and start again, but it's not very pretty.

No, only one person. If they know they'll be leaving, they can pass the group on to someone else (this needs to be done via staff), or else if they're inactive for a long time it can be possible to have staff transfer it to someone else. The main page generally doesn't need much updating, though, and I'm sure if the admin were to vanish into the night the group would manage to fend for themselves.

No, you cannot delete topics. It's really not a big deal, they will fall off the page once the group gets moving, and won't be bumped up the list meanwhile.

Now I have a question. How come so many of you folks from these two sites do private groups? It's quite a rare thing around here, heh.

>63 .Monkey.:. That's an easy one. I've never been admin before. It's a new site and I have no idea what I'm doing. If you could see the mess I made in the first few days you would know what I mean. That's why I was desperate to delete items. When it gets a little more professional looking, we'll probably open it up, although I've been in groups with a couple of thousand members with only the hard-core few ever posting. For some bizarre reason I get a little resentful at those who never put anything in, but then, I AM renowned for my grumpiness.

I'm not sure what you're expecting groups to do or admins for that matter, but it's not going to be a lot. You can't really customize anything or change how things operate. A group discussion or homepage looks like, and functions like, all the others. Don't sweat it.

Yeah, literally the only thing admins do is have access to edit the group description.

The number of chatters here is pretty small, the main exception being the large annual groups like Club Read the the 75ers. It's very unlikely you'll hit those kind of numbers here, and most of those who join, will generally post, as they're the sort who hang out in Talk a fair bit.

>65 Bookmarque: It's nice to provide the best experience we can for our group. I understand that a large part of the members here use the site primarily to catalogue their books, but us refugees are used to the the social aspect of Shelfari and LeafMarks and some of us find it difficult to adapt to change. I thank you for having us here. It must be difficult for you to be surrounded by greenhorns, bumping into the furniture and breaking the best china.

How do I mark a book "currently reading"?

Huh? What an odd response. Sure, go right ahead and do what you like. Just trying to warn you in advance and maybe save you some frustration over expectations not met. Although who knows, Tim put in some long begged for features for goodreads people when a bunch of them decamped, so who knows what he might do. You might get something you need. Anyway, enjoy and have fun.

>58 rosalita: Thank you! ... my mistake was that I was including a space between > and 58! Such a little thing; such a big difference!

>68 EadieB: You need to put it in the Currently Reading collection.

>67 .cris: We don't mind new folks a bit. All book-folk are welcome here! :)

>69 Bookmarque:. I didn't mean to be odd. I was trying to say thank you for having us.

I don't think there are any of us who weren't new at one time or another.

>71 .Monkey.: Monkey Thanks!

Ok no prob, jackandvera. Sometimes I have a very linear thought process and don't jump tracks easily. By the way, are you twins?

>75 Bookmarque: I think you have to be a Brit to know who I am. Check out my picture.

Nope, still fogged. Some TV show? Here in the wilds of Wisconsin we have no cable or other high speed internet, so I don't have TV other than what I can get with an antenna. And no streaming.

>70 BookConcierge: You're very welcome! I still have to stop and think about it once in a while even after all this time. Usually I try it one way, then click the Preview button to make sure everything looks right and the things I meant to be links actually are links, before I click Save Message. Of course you can always edit your messages after the fact, which comes in handy when I spot the inevitable typo just as I click on Save!

>63 .Monkey.: In the other (more social, tee hee) sites, we had problems with authors joining groups to promote their books, then leaving and never participating. It got really overwhelming as we got bombarded. We tended to have private groups to keep them out. It really got annoying toward the end of Shelfari's (RIP) life. We just haven't adapted yet to our new environment. ;0)

>76 .cris: I know what it means! ;-)

It's great to see Leafmarkers coming over with their own groups. I love bookish folks who are invested enough to move their bookish chatter en masse somewhere else in times of crisis ;-). I totally get you all want to adjust first but look forward to the groups opening up sometime so we can dip in.

I know some of the groups here like the large challenge groups and the annual ones might seem daunting in size at first but they're very friendly places when you dive in so please don't be put off. The Green Dragon is another very friendly spot to 'meet' folks here.

Hope you all stay with us.

>79 jguidry: You might want to read http://www.librarything.com/about/authors.

That sort of promotion is not allowed here. Oh, they try, but the messages get flagged away really fast.

I'm a pest, I know...but how does one add stars to our reviews on our group page? I used to use & # 9733 (no spaces) but that doesn't work here. I have been copying and pasting from a webpage, but is there any other way? ★★★

check out this thread and add a star so you can find it as a favorite.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/177029

The star thing is close to the bottom of the 1st post.

Your version seems to work just fine though? ★ <-- done using it

>82 .cris: don't forget the semi-colon at the end ★

I tried both with and without, it appears to work both ways.

>81 MarthaJeanne: I'm glad to see that. I don't mind them briefly mentioning their books. They worked hard and should be darn proud of themselves and their work. But the shameless solicitation we used to get was mind-numbing. (insert eyeroll)

>83 Bookmarque: Many thanks. I have to say I'm really impressed by the speed of response here.

>88 .cris: We all spend WAY too much time here ;-)

Yes, yes we do.

>83 Bookmarque:

Thank you for this very useful link! I not only starred it, I also placed a direct link in the Notes widget on my home page.

>60 MarthaJeanne: The nesting has to be set up well to work properly. Shefari did it right. Only one level of nesting, and you got "unread" notifications. You could hide or show replies. You could jump to the first unread post...

I wasn't a fan of how Leafmarks had it set up. There were multiple layers of nesting (which wouldn't have bothered me, but the rest of it didn't work well). There were bugs with the system that never got fixed. It could have been better, but LM didn't have the manpower to do the fixing.

>61 .Monkey.: Ahhhh, that explains it!

>63 .Monkey.: That's more with the recent influx, I think - many of those who first went to Leafmarks, before coming here. I was (am) a part of some of the groups, but I didn't even realize that so many of them were private at all!!!!

>68 EadieB: If you need step-by-step... I'm assuming you've already added the book to your shelf?

One way:
- Go to the book page.
- under "Your book information" (the second section), you'll see "Collections"
- Click on the little folder with the arrow
- From there you can choose whichever collections you want to add it to (including multiple shelves at once!!! i.e. Read and Currently Reading)

Wait.... I think I might be forgetting something that I set up for myself early on. Someone else (with the first influx of shelfarians asked me about this a while back).

Do you have "currently reading" as an option? If not, there's a way to add it. I believe you click "edit collections" under that same folder/drop down menu. Yes, from there, you can add a new collection and call it whatever you want. Currently reading or anything else you want to add.

>95 LibraryCin: Currently Reading is one of the default collections.

I'll say this while the majority of our members are happily in their beds (I'm based in the UK). I'm astounded that I can add films on here. Back in the day our film club was always looking for a the Holy Grail, a Shelfari for films and it was here all along!

While LT does allow films, it is really set up for books. The fields are designed around books. Making it easier to add films was very contraversial, and fairly recent. http://blog.librarything.com/main/2015/09/music-and-movie-cataloging-but-were-st...

Also, please mark the films as such in the title field, and do NOT use the author of the book the film was based on as the first author of the film. (Director is a better choice.) The film should always be in a different work from the book, and this helps keep them straight.

>98 MarthaJeanne: Thank you. I'm mindful of the difference and don't use the Touchstone if the film director is not offered.

>99 .cris: If you get the wrong touchstone, you should always try 'Others'. You've probably figured that out by now. Sometimes that doesn't work either. But if you have the URL of the work you want, you can add the work number and two colons before the title to force it to the right work. You may have to delete and retype one of the brackets. The work number is the first one if you have a URL with two.

>96 MarthaJeanne: Thank you. There was one of three I thought was default, but wasn't, and I couldn't remember which. Maybe it's the "To Read" collection?

When you edit your collections you can tell by the color. Blue folders are created by you.

>102 .Monkey.: Wow! I just took a look and it looks like I had to set up my "read" collection! That's surprising! Thank you for mentioning that, though. Now, I know.

>31 LibraryCin:
Thanks for that hint! I'm still learning the ins-and-outs of the site.

>104 Hope_H: No worries! The only issue with leaving it defaulted to "my posts" is that I don't see new threads added to my group unless I think to go to the group page (which I try to do once in a while!).

It's better to leave it on "groups and posts" or else you'll never see new posts in the groups you're in. Personally I leave it on All Topics and just put groups I have zero interest in on ignore, as well as threads that pop up in other groups where I will have zero interest in that particular conversation. Once you've got all that stuff weeded away it's pretty manageable.

The transfer from LMs was remarkably pain-free (as I'm sure many of us who went from Shelfari to Leafmarks will attest), but I did lose my "date read" data. Can it be retrieved or should I start re-entering? It's not really that important to me.

That's one staff will have to answer. You can shoot them an email for better visibility.

>108 .Monkey.: Thanks. I have now.

>106 .Monkey.: I have considered doing that. I might wait until Leafmarks is closed so I feel like I have a bit more time! :-) Down to 2 sites from 4 will help. LOL!

>109 .cris:

Let us know the outcome. I haven't transferred my books yet.

>111 Andrew-theQM: Will do!

I do, I do! I have my Shelfari CSV but I've added a lot of books since I moved over to Leafmarks, both read and unread, as well as some book reviews.
How can I import my books from Leafmarks? Her directions are a little fuzzy.

>113 threadnsong: Use the link at the bottom of https://www.leafmarks.com/lm/#/import to export your leafmarks books. Then return to LT and import here.

Hi wifilibrarian,

The first link showed me LT rather than LM. Could you check and resend?

Thanks.

Also, I think that not all of my books/reviews came over. The number on LM is 462, the number on LT is 253 (or something like that). Plus, a lot of the books show duplicate tags: TBR and Read.

>116 threadnsong: Yep, as I noted in another thread, we're having a bit of trouble with LM imports just now (typically, some of the records aren't importing, even though our system recognizes them all as existing). Our developer ccatalfo is working on a fix, and I'll be posting with updates. In the meantime, feel free to post here or email me if there's anything else I can do to help! I'm at loranne@librarything.com.

That would explain why less than half mine uploaded.

I'm still checking in on Leafmarks but it is like a ghost town. Few people are still posting. Sad to see it go.

>119 JulieLill: I'm also still checking in. Later tonight I will be starting our Group Read on Leafmarks. I agree, it is very quiet!

>119 JulieLill: I've attended the funeral. I'm not sure I want to hang round while the body decomposes!

>121 .cris: The body is holding together pretty well at the moment.

There are still more people kicking around there than there were at the end of shelfari (RIP).

There are too many posts for me to mention, so I'll just say:

• Thanks for the laughs. A few of those posts really made me giggle.


• Thanks for the information. Like others, I'm still learning and working my way around, so hints and little tidbits are much appreciated.


• I went to the funeral home. People were there, but the smell of the body was a little overwhelming.

Shelfari's demise was so long drawn out and depressing.We were given the date of Mar 16th,and many people,once they had moved all their stuff out probably felt it was better to make a clean break,and not have to divide their time between two - or three! - sites. I went to say last fond farewells only to find,with half the features gone,they had extended the deadline till end of May.Not good form at all,Amazon.
In the end,only Cindy and I were left in our group,and we went on till the very end.
Will I do that for Leafmarks? Not so sure,but probably,as admin will do so as long as someone else is there.. Captain last to leave and all that lol.At least the owner Jacquie made the ending of LM sharp and short,only one month. And we had been there only four months,so the attachment wasnt as deep. But all this moving stuff and editing,and learning new ways is very wearing on old brains,not to say drastically reducing valuable reading time.

>125 dustydigger: I will be at Leafmarks until the end of June as we are doing three Group Reads in June and will be doing them all at Leafmarks (in the middle of one now) whilst I figure out how to do group reads without nesting That is the biggest problem without Shelfari or Leafmarks - no nesting!

>125 dustydigger: Yeah, the Shelfari thing was horrible, and you're right- very depressing. Ugh, just brutal! I wasn't a huge Amazon fan before that, but I lost all respect for them after that.

I didn't invest a lot into LeafMarks because I was already gun-shy after Shelfari, so LM shutting down wasn't that big of a deal to me. I liked LM best at first (including goodreads which I've belonged to since 2011), but as I used LibraryThing more, I began to prefer being here. So glad this site was my favorite- after Shelfari, of course.

>127 AnitaUnmuted: What is it about Library Thing that appealed to you a.n.ita?

>128 Andrew-theQM: You know, I'm not sure. It's very different from Shelfari, and I think that's why I didn't like it at all years ago when I tried it. Let's see...

• For one, it hasn't gone crazy with those really huge images. I really hate that. To me, it's just too much.


• It feels more grounded. Professional-ish. Thorough. Committed maybe? I don't really know how to describe what I mean here. There's just a 'feel' to it.


• It seems to be full of easter eggs (hidden gems). It's like finding a hidden stash in one of my video games. I learn something new almost every time I visit. It's feature-rich, but you have to discover or be told about many of them. That's not so great for beginners, though.


• It's very detailed- the book info, for example.


• I also love that we can use some code in posts, comments, and on our profile. (Yep, I was in the mood for a bulleted list. LOL!)

Weird. I said I'm not sure, yet I just listed all of that. I think there are more reasons, so I may have to add to this list. :)

Oh, and Anita is fine. :)

>125 dustydigger: In the end,only Cindy and I were left in our group,and we went on till the very end.
Will I do that for Leafmarks? Not so sure,

I'm not sure, either. I initially thought I wouldn't, but I find myself still checking in, so I suspect I probably will, after all.

I'll just add to Anita's list of what I like here. I know "talk" and groups are not LT's strong point, but I was hooked up with a group (the Category Challenge group) a while back and found I really like the people (and the challenges in that group!).

I like the way Anita put it about "easter eggs"! Have you all found the "Folly" link in the left menu from your home page? I think the "LibraryThing Roulette" is kind of fun!

Yes, Folly is definitely one of the easter eggs. After I saw it, I said, "Oooooooh." LOL! It's just something I didn't expect like the many other finds.

I want to hug LT with relief because of the jump to first unread feature. All that'' more posts'' and scrolling down to look at the final post,then pop out of the topic to re-enter to click on the first reply thread just to make a post a nightmare. We all became rather inactive as a result.

I posted this on one group so I thought I'd post it here too...I also don't like not being able to delete. I'm an over-average error person. I think everyone is doing a great job helping each other out. I think I'm the only person way behind on the knowledge of using this sight. I'm still confused and I'm afraid of trying anything because of making errors. There is so much to know that I can't organize it in a better understandable capacity in my memory. I know it takes time but for me it takes longer. However, I enjoy being with my friends and I can still read. By the time I learn everything and feel comfortable I hope we don't have to move again....I'm glad to be with you all.....

Don't be afraid of making mistakes. Most things here can be undone or deleted fairly easily, and the few exceptions, people will jump in to help you fix.

>134 dustydigger: that is exactly why i became less active at LM

>135 Juan-banjo: you can, at least, edit, even if you cant delete.

>135 Juan-banjo: Thanks for all the feedback. I can never have enough.

>129 AnitaUnmuted: Fully agree with all those points. Also, I think you will not ever have to worry about LT being all flashy and image-happy, that is not our (or Tim's) style. We're functional over flashy. :)

>135 Juan-banjo: Don't ever, ever, ever be afraid to try. Whether we're talking about this site, or something else you want to try. I'm very new here now (because I joined many years ago then left), and I discover something new almost every time I come here. It is a little scary, and I'm too new to help much, but there are some awesome (canNOT believe I used that word) people here ready to help and answer any questions. Use them. Then one day, when you're ready, you'll be able to help someone else. :) As I mentioned above, this site is full of 'easter eggs' (IMHO), so play around a little. It will help you gain some confidence.

>140 .Monkey.: So glad to hear that!

I did call in on LMs yesterday to check my shelf. I loaded "my books", did all my Christmas shopping, re-grouted the bathroom and then counted the cleaning products under my sink and Hey Presto! as quick as that, my book-shelf appeared.

>141 AnitaUnmuted: Thanks so much for the feedback. I did go around the site a better yesterday but kept reminding myself I won't mess it up. But if I do I know now there are so many people here that are very caring and helpful. I don't feel so much like an idiot now.

>142 .cris:
Thanks for the laugh .... if you want to load another shelf, feel free to come over and re-grout MY bathroom ... or clean my garage ...

>126 Andrew-theQM:
I know that you are not a fan of Goodreads, but I think group discussions can work a bit better there than here. You can use folders on Goodreads to separate discussion for each book, for example.

Is it the same as Shelfari with nested discussions - of course not. But I think it would work better than LT's format where there is no way to create folders for grouping discussion threads together.

Just my opinion.

>145 BookConcierge: Thanks for that. Wherever we do the discussions of books I want to make sure all the group of people that do the group reads are happy. :)

>143 Juan-banjo: I'm so glad to hear... err... uh... read that. :)
>142 .cris: LOL!

I go back every 3 or 4 days to see if Leafmarks has shriveled up. >135 Juan-banjo: I have a private group just for me, myself and I and no one else. I use it to prepost things so I can reduce my editing on the real group threads.

>148 Foghorn-Leghorn: Why not just click the "preview" button before posting?

>148 Foghorn-Leghorn: I write my reviews in a Word document, and then copy/paste ... get all that editing out of the way first.

>149 .Monkey.: "Why not just click the "preview" button before posting?"
Another GREAT feature.

*nods* I make use of it plenty when I'm doing more than a quick reply or some such. :)

>149 .Monkey.: I don't think that far ahead. LOL. I just type and hope. ;0)

>152 .Monkey.: Me, too!
>153 jguidry: LOL!

>152 .Monkey.: >153 jguidry: >154 AnitaUnmuted:
I also just type it into the review box and if I find mistakes afterwards I just go back and edit it.

When I write a review I nearly always post it in a thread first, which is where any needed refining occurs. I don't like to have to edit reviews once they are posted on the book page.

>149 .Monkey.: I am trying a lot of things here on LT. Now that I have learned how to post pictures and all the things from
here. I have been so distracted that I haven't even paid attention to the preview button. Thanks for bringing that up!!

It's quite useful for doublechecking things before posting :)

It's quite useful for doublechecking things before posting

Especially if you are posting a picture or a link and want to make sure it's showing up properly and is an appropriate size.

We've finally got our Leafmarks import in place. Check it out: https://www.librarything.com/topic/225279

Is there any update on this? I tried to upload my books again yesterday but only got 1611 books out of 1762.